In a temporary breather to Telugu Desam Party general secretary Nara Lokesh, the Andhra Pradesh government on Friday indicated to the state high court that it would not arrest him in connection with the Amaravati Inner Ring Road case.
Additional Advocate General of the government Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy told the high court that the CID would serve notices on Lokesh under Section 41-A of the Criminal Procedure Code for questioning in the case.
Even as the arguments in the high court were still going on, a team of CID officials have left for New Delhi to serve the notices to Nara Lokesh under 41-A of the Cr PC, sources said.
According to sources, the state government has decided to drop Section 409 (Criminal Breach of Trust) of the Indian Penal Code from the FIR lodged against Lokesh, who was included in the Amaravati Inner Ring Road case as Accused No. 14.
If Section 409 of IPC is invoked against Lokesh, the CID police can straightaway arrest Lokesh without serving notice on him under Section 41-A of the Cr PC, as was done in the case of his father and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu in the skill development corporation scam.
“Since Lokesh was not the concerned minister at the time of alignment of inner ring road, he cannot be prosecuted under Section 409 of IPC and it will be extremely difficult to get a permission from the Governor for prosecution,” sources said.
Since Governor Abdul Aziz was also a former Supreme Court judge, he might not grant the permission to prosecute Lokesh.
As the hearing in the high court is going on, the possibility is that it might grant anticipatory bail or ask Lokesh to cooperate with investigation. It might also ask the CID not to take any coercive steps against him without its approval, sources added.
